The Disappearing DominicansDominicanos en desaparición

The Disappearing Dominicans

Housing costs driving Dominicans from Northern Manhattan, study says

Story by Gregg McQueen

The percentage of Dominican householdsuptown declined 6.2 percent in just a four-year period.

Change is here.

So says a new study from the City University of New York’s Dominican Studies Institute (CUNY DSI) that details how rising housing costs are driving Dominican residents out of the Washington Heights and Inwood sections of Manhattan.

Though the neighborhoods have long been enclaves for New Yorkers of Dominican descent, gentrification is rapidly pushing longtime residents out of the area, the brief said.

Titled When a Neighborhood Becomes a Revolving Door for Dominicans: Rising Housing Costs in Washington Heights/Inwood and the Declining Presence of Dominicans, the brief represents part one of a two-part study CUNY DSI is undertaking on the state of affordable housing in Northern Manhattan.

Using household and census data, the study examines the growing cost of housing and the decline of Dominican households in the area, and includes a section on policy recommendations.

“I think a study like this was long overdue,” said Dr. Ramona Hernández, Director of CUNY DSI. “There’s been this notion that something is happening regarding gentrification in Washington Heights and Inwood, and this brief compiles data to examine that notion.”

“A study like this was long overdue,” said Dr.Ramona Hernández.

According to the study, the percentage of Dominican households in Washington Heights/Inwood declined 6.2 percent in just a four-year period, between 2010 and 2014.

As of 2014, one-third of non-Hispanic white households had been in their current apartment for only two years, the study said, indicating an influx of non-Hispanic residents into the neighborhoods.

Hernández remarked that this trend is affecting the cultural character of Northern Manhattan, which for decades had been a vibrant representation of Dominican and Latin culture.

“The businesses, the character is changing,” said Hernández. “If a cultural legacy is not upheld, it will disappear.”

Housing costs in Washington Heights/Inwood rose substantially between 1999 and 2014, the study said. The median out-of-pocket rent expense, the amount a household pays after housing subsidies, climbed from $777 in 1999 to $1,040 in 2014, an increase of 25.3 percent.

The brief also noted a wide income disparity among racial and ethnic groups residing in the neighborhoods.

While the median household income for non-Hispanic whites was $55,808 in 1999, Dominicans’ median household income was $27,904 — roughly half that — during the same year.

By 2014, the median income for non-Hispanic whites in Washington Heights/Inwood had almost doubled, reaching $80,000, according to the study. Yet, the median income for Dominicans had increased to only $31,000 during the same period.

“There’s really two factors at play in terms of Dominicans being driven out — rent prices are escalating, and income remains stagnant for Dominican residents,” Hernández stated.

“It’s much harder for working-class Dominicans to afford the rent increases in Washington Heights and Inwood than it is for other ethnic groups with higher incomes,” she said.

Dominicans also have the lowest rate of homeownership in Washington Heights and Inwood, despite their long-time presence in the neighborhood.

“If a cultural legacy is not upheld, it will disappear,”says Hernández.

Among households that own their home, only 5 percent of Dominicans in Washington Heights/Inwood were homeowners in 2014, the study said.

Hernández, who grew up in Washington Heights, noted that Dominicans helped the neighborhood rebound from the dark times of the ‘80’s and ’90’s, when the area was plagued by crime and drugs.

“At one time, you wouldn’t even want to tell somebody you were from Washington Heights,” she remarked. “But then it became a vibrant neighborhood, with a bodega on every corner, selling not drugs, but rice and beans.”

“The reality is that those same residents that turned the neighborhood around are finding they’re now unable to stay there,” she said.

The brief lists several policy recommendations, including: setting a quota for immigrants in public housing within neighborhoods where immigrants make up at least 40 percent of the population, and creating city- and state-funded housing voucher programs to expand the current coverage of Section 8, rather than relying solely on federal dollars.

The plan would offer some benefits, according to Hernández.

Hernández said the city and state need to create more of a safety net to help low-income, immigrant residents. “The federal government right now is not a friend to immigrants,” she said. “If the city is there [with funding], it will be a help.”

The CUNY DSI brief also advocates for reform of existing rent regulation laws to reduce the effects of loopholes making these laws inadequate for protecting low-income renters. This includes the so-called “eviction bonus,” which allows a property owner the right to increase rents by 20 percent on a rent-stabilized unit when a renter moves out.

The brief also called for an increase in housing subsidies for low-income individuals, use of publicly-owned land to build affordable housing, and city-provided incentives for owners of affordable units in return for forgoing some future rent increases.

While Hernández called Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to build or preserve 300,000 affordable housing units by 2026 “a step in the right direction,” she questioned whether that number of units, or the city’s timeline, would still be enough to satisfy housing demands of low-income New Yorkers.

Hernández also said the city’s plan to rezone Inwood, which many community residents and stakeholders have pushed back against, “is going to happen” despite opposition.

“Too many developers stand to profit from it,” she said.

Hernández said the Inwood rezoning plan, while imperfect, would still benefit the neighborhood because it would ensure creation of over 1,000 affordable housing units and assist small businesses.

“Will residents get all they want with the rezoning? No, but they will get something, as opposed to now, where they have no guarantees,” Hernández remarked.

She explained that part two of CUNY DSI’s study, which should be released later this year, will focus more closely on evaluating the state of programs such as Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) and Preferential Rent.

“We really hope these studies will advance the conversation about displacement and the need for affordable housing,” stated Hernández. “We can arm community members and elected officials with information they need for advocacy and creation of policy solutions.”

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